Connecting the private and the public: pregnancy, exclusion, and the expansion of schooling in Africa

Abstract

In a number of countries in Africa, young women who become pregnant are excluded from school. This article presents a critique of policy and practice in this area drawing partly on Diana Leonard's scholarship concerning the relational dynamic of gender, generation, social division, and household forms. Much of the policy prescription of large global organisations concerned with the expansion of secondary schooling in Africa does not sufficiently take account of the connection between the gender dynamics of the private and that of the public outlined in Leonard's work. In showing some of the effects of this oversight, this article reports on data from research studies in five countries in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana) to show how aspects of silence, evasion, and stereotyping often characterise teachers' and education officials' reflections on youth and pregnancy. Young women's concerns with the risk of pregnancy are often given inadequate attention, while harsh actions to shame young women who become pregnant are reported. The importance of working across sectors to link social policy in this area is shown to be difficult and in need of much more focused resource.

Keywords:

• Kenya
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• school exclusions
• pregnancy
• gender

Notes

The 10 actions are scholarships for girls, recruitment and training of female teachers, girl-friendly curricula and pedagogical approaches that enhance learning and employment, after-school tutoring, and greater support for the non-formal education sector.

Gender, education and global poverty reduction funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council Award no. RES 167-25-260. Thanks to colleagues working on that project (Veerle Dieltiens, Jenni Karlsson, Stu Letsatsi, Herbert Makinda, Amy North, Jane Onsongo and Chris Yates) who collected the data and contributed to the project reflections from which this section of the discussion has developed.

Thanks to TEGINT for giving permission to quote from unpublished data collected for research studies and to colleagues involved with aspects of the research component of the project, particularly Andrew Mamedu, Oliver Kapaya, Ruth Audu, Duncan Kishekya , Jo Heslop, and Louise Wetheridge.

Thanks to TENI for giving permission to quote from the unpublished reports on the baseline research prepared for the project.

This research has been published now (Panday et al. 2009).